How to Find the Perfect Recruiting Firm in 5 Easy Steps

How to Find the Perfect Recruiting Firm in 5 Easy Steps

2015 is turning out to be a year filled with amazing recruitment opportunities. For the first time in four years, recruiting leaders have higher budgets and even higher hiring volumes, according to LinkedIn’s 2015 Global Recruiting Trends report.

But greater hiring capacities don’t necessarily translate into better hires. Today’s market is decidedly candidate-driven, meaning the best and the brightest aren’t easy to find or hire. And there’s no guarantee they’ll be committed employees. In fact, a wandering eye is a trend that’s growing among today’s top tier candidates. In a survey of 1,039 millennials by Elance-oDesk released in October, nearly 80 percent of the respondents said they would like to quit their regular job to work for themselves -" not an ideal quality for most companies.

So, how do companies attract those rare candidates that have the talent to succeed and the commitment to stay the course?

The answer: connecting with the recruiting firms that are most aligned with your specific corporate goals. It’s no longer enough to rely on recruitment “experts.” In today’s competitive talent market, you need to partner with firms that deeply understand your corporate needs. Working with the wrong firm can lead to squandered resources, lost time and unsuitable hires.

Here are 5 simple tips for finding the perfect recruiting and search firm.

1. Narrow your search. Identify what industry, position and level of employees you are looking for, as well as where your ideal employees should live. Also, assess the corporate culture at your company and who would fit in best. Find those firms that specialize in just those candidates. For example: if you are looking for executives in the Midwest, don’t work with a firm that specializes in middle managers from the Northeast -" a typical rookie mistake.

2. Know the options. There are several types of recruiting firms including contingency, retainer and partial retainer. Contingency firms generally work with job openings up to $100,000 and only get paid when they fill a position. Retainer firms find candidates for positions typically paying over $100,000 and collect a fee whether they find someone or not. Other firms charge a partial retainer in which clients make one payment up front and the rest at hire. These options impact not only the method of payment but the way that each type of firm completes the process. While all of these options have benefits, make sure you are working with the kind that fits your needs best.

3. Work with a team that connects well with the talent: Because of today’s increased competition, recruiting leaders need to be experts at winning over talent. What’s the best tailored message to get them interested in the jobs you are offering? A great recruiting firm should know this.

4. Make sure your partners are experts at targeting passive candidates. The latest data shows that over 75% of candidates are passive, but few corporations have a genuine strategy for targeting them. Passive candidates often end up being your next stars, so make sure your search firm knows how to get to them.

5. Reputation is everything. A potential partner may tell you whatever you want to hear. Have they actually placed great employees in the past? This is of utmost importance.

Now it’s time to locate the right employee search firm. Many companies start by doing a simple Google search for recruiters, while others turn to colleagues for recommendations. This may be a good place to start educating yourself, but be aware that there are about 20,000 search firms out there and many will tell you they have what it takes to succeed.

Find the perfect recruiting firm with a free matching service

For the past nine years, Online Recruiters Directory (ORD) has been helping hiring managers and HR experts find employee recruiting firms that match their needs. This free consulting service matches for location, industry and type of position. Most importantly, they can give you an accurate assessment of each firm’s rates of success and relative reputation in the field. That takes the guesswork out of the picture and saves time and money.

It takes just a few minutes for an ORD consultant to understand a client’s needs and provide two or three names that best match them. Plus, you gain access to a robust database of top firms. From there, it is easy to create those key relationships that lead to the right hires. Winning the war for talent has never been this seamless or this satisfying.